The present invention relates to a device for use in the surgical treatment of a patient suffering from a funnel breast condition.
Until now, one has corrected the deficiency - typical for a so-called funnel breast condition - of the breast bone and of the ribs separating several pairs of ribs from the breast bone, fixing metallic clamps on to them, and securing the two clamps corresponding to each pair of ribs, on the one hand, to one another and, on the other hand, to the breast bone. Since previously one always employed only smooth clamps, and used wire for the connection of the same, the strength of the connection was not very high. The clamps could loosen themselves and be displaced relative to one another. For the securing of the clamps on the breast bone, one was forced to bore through the latter and to pass a wire through the bone. Moreover, the clamps might still be rotatably displaceable about their longitudinal axis. Indeed, the ends of the wire serving for the connection have been known to penetrate through the skin. It has also been found that pieces of such wire sometimes break off and begin to move along the ribs. A further disadvantage of the previous method of correction was that, in order to remove the clamps, it was often necessary to expose a relatively large area of the breast bone and the parts surrounding it to enable a surgeon to remove all such wires. Seen as a whole, the conventional method for the correction of a funnel breast is still subject to many disadvantages and therefore worthy of improvement.